The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Summary

BOOK TITLE – “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy”

By Douglas Adams

About the book
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is the first novel of a trilogy of 5 books by Doulas Adams. It quickly became a bestseller and sold more than 15 million copies. This short science-fiction novel (around 280 pages) was based on a radio series which was also made by Doulas. A TV show based on the trilogy was filmed. In 2005, a movie of the same name based on this novel was released, but the author of the series never lived to see the moved as he died in a heart attack in the may 11th of 2001.
Short Summary
One day, Arthur Dent, the main character, woke up and saw bulldozers outside of his house. He realized that his house was scheduled to be destructed to make way for a highway bypass. He quickly ran outside of his house to protest against the demolition by lying in front of the vehicles. A few hours later, his friend, Ford Perfect, arrives and tries to convince him to go with him to a bar. Arthur follows and they went to a bar while the demolishers destroy his house after he’s gone. Ford tells him that he’s actually an alien from a planet near Betelgeuse stuck on Earth for 15 years. He said that he senses that Earth is about to be demolished by the Vogons, another species of alien, to make way for a hyperspace bypass. Minutes later, large alien spaceships arrive on Earth and announce the fate of their planet. Fortunately, Ford knew how to hitch a ride from Vogon ships and our 2 main characters embark on the spaceship just in time (even if it’s against the law), seconds before Earth is annihilated.
When the Vogons discovered 2the two hitchhikers aboard, they immediately ejected the duo out the spaceship. In space, they are luckily picked up by the Heart of Gold, a spaceship powered by the infinite improbability drive (a space drive which manipulates the laws of probablity), and was been stolen by Ford's semi-cousin and President of the Galaxy, Zaphod Beeblebrox. Zaphod, Trillian and Marvin, a depressed robot, are searching for the legendary planet of Magrathea, which had built luxury planets for the rich before the economic collapse. Ford is initially skeptical, but they find Magrathea a while later.
On Magrathea, Arthur finds out the truth behind the existence and destruction of Earth. Our planet is actually a supercomputer commissioned and paid for by a race of hyper-intelligent pan-dimensional beings. These creatures had earlier built a supercomputer named Deep Thought, to calculate the Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything. But after seven and a half million years of calculating, it had announced that the Answer is in fact 42, but the question itself is forgotten. Being unsatisfied with the Answer, they set about finding the forgotten Question, but Deep Thought says he’s not powerful enough to calculate and he designs an even more powerful computer, the Earth, to calculate the Question. Calculating the Question takes ten million years. However, just five minutes before the completion of the research program, the Earth is demolished by the Vogons.
The Ending
Unfortunately, the police found Zaphod and want to arrest him for theft of the Heart of Gold. Our heroes had to escape and go back to their ship. Back in space, they decided to have lunch at The Restaurant at the End of The Universe. From here on, the story continues in the next novel: “The Restaurant at the End of The Universe”, but I have yet to read it.
The Characters
The main characters are Arthur Dent, the sole human survivor from the destruction of Earth. He was born in England.
Ford Perfect is Arthur’s friend since 10 years. He is a human-like alien from the star system of Betelgeuse. He was doing a research on Earth but he was accidently stuck on Earth for 10 years.
Zaphod Beeblebrox is the President of the Galaxy, but he lost his job when he stole the top secret government ship, the Heart of Gold.
The Setting
The story happens in the present, but the technology used by the aliens is far more advanced than ours.
My report
I liked the book, because I like science-fiction novels and space. The vocabulary is very rich, but I think it’s too complicated for the new readers. The story is quite hard to understand, but most people should manage to understand it. Fortunately, I fully understand the book. However, I think the novel is a little long (250 pages).
I would recommend this book to my friends only if they are good in English and like science-fiction books.

There is already a second book in this trilogy, “the Restaurant at the End of The Universe”. There are even 5 more books.